I. Field of the Invention
This patent application relates to a seating unit for aircraft, and in particular for an aircraft cabin.
The field of this invention is the transport of passengers aboard an aircraft. The invention relates in particular to aircraft intended to be operated commercially by airline companies for the transport of a large number of passengers. Such aircraft comprise a cabin in which seats able to accommodate passengers during a trip are arranged. These seats are intended to accommodate passengers comfortably and also to ensure the safety of the latter. In air transportation, three main comfort levels are offered to the passengers: economy class, business class and first class. The comfort of the passenger is greater or lesser, depending on the class selected. Whatever the comfort level selected, there generally are seats, possibly convertible into berths, these seats being fastened onto the floor of the aircraft cabin. More often than not, all the seats in the cabin face the front of the aircraft, so that all the passengers are traveling in the direction of movement of the aircraft.
The technical problem on which this invention is based is to be able to adjust the interior space of an aircraft cabin, in particular after delivery of the aircraft, or also even in flight.
II. Description of Related Art
Patent application FR-2 863 558 proposes a seat with a movable back making it possible to implement in an aircraft cabin zones in which the passengers may travel facing each other. Such a solution is intended for the most part to be applied to seats used in economy class.
As for the document EP-1 211 176, it proposes a solution seeking to optimize the space for each passenger in an aircraft cabin equipped with seats convertible into berths. The proposed solution provides for having the seats pivot when they change over from their position intended to accommodate a passenger in seated position to their position intended to accommodate this passenger in lying-down position. A pivoting on the order of 40 degrees is contemplated here. This solution, however, does not make it possible to adjust the interior space of the cabin in order to change relative positions between seats.
Finally, EP-968 916 proposes an aircraft seat comprising an assembly structure (stator) for the assembly of the seat on conventional rails for accommodating seats of an aircraft, and a frame (rotor) assembled rotating on the said structure and making it possible to have the seat pivot around a vertical axis and to lock the seat in four crash positions offset by 90°. The assembly structure of the seat is assembled fastened onto two rails of the aircraft. For this purpose, it has four fastening components placed at the four corners of the structure and two intermediate immobilization shafts. Each fastening component has a foot that can slide in the rail in order to make it possible to adjust the positioning of the assembly structure—and therefore of the seat—relative to the rails. Once positioned, the assembly structure is fastened permanently to the rails with the aid of the immobilization shafts, each shaft being inserted into a circular opening of a rail. From that moment on, the seat no longer has any degree of freedom in longitudinal translation with regard to the rails.
The solution proposed by EP-968 916 therefore makes it possible to choose the number of seats to be laid out in the cabin of the aircraft and to position each seat in the desired place in the cabin. But once the cabin is so configured, only the orientation of each seat (which is assembled pivoting) can be changed easily. It especially is not provided to be able to change the position and in particular the offset of the seats among themselves. Such a change is not conceivable in practice, because it involves completely dismantling the seats in question and consequently requires many hours of labor. In addition, it can be done only on the ground and entails an immobilization of the aircraft.